Mars Base Demo: Storyline Integration with Blender 360° Panoramic Renders

I created this short e-learning demo for my Upwork portfolio, showcasing how to integrate custom-modeled 360° environments into Articulate Storyline. I wanted something unique, short, and interesting.

Project Rationale: 

I chose a 3D-printed Mars habitat because the concept aligns with realistic solutions for future human life on Mars, making the demo feel grounded and relevant.

To give the base a compelling and genuine purpose, I focused the learning content on growing crops on Mars (Martian agriculture). This subject was a natural fit, leveraging the extensive agriculture knowledge I've gained working with a client over the years, which is also why the base is appropriately named Rhizome Station.

Technical Breakdown:

3D Modeling: The Mars base was modeled in Blender (free and open-source software). I created procedural textures for most of the scene and Quixel Megascans assets for distant rocks and lab flora. I also used Blender to model the 3D landscape you see as a backdrop on the computer screens.

Interaction Assets: For the icons and images seen within the interactions, these were all done in Storyline using the built-in icons and AI images.

Interaction: The experience uses seven linked 360° renders. To track progress, I rendered the images with a start/finish state, allowing a 'completion' green tick to display when the user returns to the main lab view.

Audio: Narration was created using Storyline's AI voices.

Future Plans: I'm planning to expand this into a full e-learning experience. The expanded course will start with the user in Earth's orbit learning about the Hohmann Transfer Orbit, and once they reach the base, they'll be able to explore different rooms (the living quarters are already built) and go on outdoor missions. I'll update the community when that larger version is complete, but it likely won't be until next year.

Check out the Demo here.